LinkedIn Offers App For Students

LinkedIn can be a useful professional networking tool, and who needs such a service more than recent college graduates? However, students have unique needs that haven’t always been addressed through the site. For this reason, LinkedIn recently released a new app geared specifically toward students. Here’s what you need to know.

The new mobile app, LinkedIn Students, launched on iOS and Android on April 18. The app is intentionally designed with college students in mind, many of whom are already familiar with the original LinkedIn, (about 1 in 10 users are college students or recent grads) but developers are hoping they’ll find this new application more useful.

“Students are already on LinkedIn, but we think we can do more for them,” Ada Yu, project manager of the app toldUSA Today. “We think we can really design and build an experience that really helps them.”

2. This app differs from the LinkedIn we already know in ways that better suit young professionals.

As we progress in our careers, so much changes. We gain experience and new connections, we strengthen connections we already have, etc. So, one app alone might not be able to sufficiently address all professions through each and every stage of their career. LinkedIn Students is different than the original site in several ways:

LinkedIn Students allows users to investigate different career options and paths more easily. These younger users might not be as certain of what they’re looking for as more seasoned workers.

Users are provided with information about the careers of students similar to them – based on their college or their major.

Based upon major, graduation year, and school, the app generates a list of job and internship recommendations.

There is alumni networking potential with this application. This could be a benefit to recent grads who are working to build their professional network for the first time.

Job options are presented in the Tinder-like swipe right/left style.

3. In addition, LinkedIn Students still provides the same services and benefits as the original site.

If you liked LinkedIn, and you’re a young professional, you’ll probably really enjoy this new application. It’s more specifically custom tailored to your needs that the other site, but it still gets the job done (or, the new job found as the case may be.) For more information check out this video about how to “start your professional story.”

4. Don’t forget: you have other options as well.

Other websites also offer professional networking opportunities, job search tools, or both. Using LinkedIn (the site or one of the apps) doesn’t mean you can’t use other tools, as well. Take some time to consider your options before deciding which sites make the most sense for you.

While LinkedIn has been shown to do a significantly better job of generating potential leads than Facebook or Twitter, it does have its downsides (such as the not-relevant-to me emails, and spam, it tends to generate for its members). Other, less well-known apps, such as Opportunity or Zerply, might feel like a better fit, or a good supplement to LinkedIn. So, be sure to take some time to have a look around and think about what’s best for you.

Tell Us What You Think

Do you think you’ll use LinkedIn’s new app for students? We want to hear from you! Leave a comment or join the discussion on Twitter.

Gina Belli

Gina Belli works as a teacher, freelance writer, and educational consultant, and lives in her beloved home state, Connecticut. She likes to write about education, work-life balance, and the economy. Given her arresting capacity to over-analyze anything interpersonal, her writing often tends to focus on some of the more emotional aspects of workplace connections and disconnections, as they relate to partnerships and teams, personality and communication styles, and leadership. In her free time, she likes to putter around her renovated one-room schoolhouse home, take walks in the woods, and eat as much guacamole as she can get her hands on.